Tilting the tee for better hitting drills
March 15, 2018 by Coach McCreary
Filed under Coaching, Hitting
I’m a gigantic fan of tee work. So are a huge majority of major league hitters so I think I’m in good company. It’s tough to improve upon something that has worked for so many generations but I may have found an exception.
An assistant on my son’s 11u travel team (who is also a scout and former D1 player and coach) incorporated something new into all their tee drills at practice.
He tilts the tee back a little.
Here is a standard tee position with it flat on the ground …
The tube placed on the tee represents the path of the pitch in this position. It’s flat and not very realistic.
But if you tilt the tee back a little like this next photo (I used a barbell weight underneath) …
… you’ll see that the tube better matches the plane of a real pitch.
It’s not a huge game-changer but that little visual difference for hitters can help them grasp the concept of matching the plane of the pitch with their swing.
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The flat tee’s have caused issues with my son. so I always used it to get him to keep eyes on the ball. The tilted tee appears to be a great invention for young kids too!